Taoism

A symbol of Taoism stands for what Taoists believe are the two basic forces in the universe—yin (female) and yang (male). The black shape in the centre and the broken lines represent yin. The centre red shape and the solid lines symbolize yang.

Taoism is a philosophy that began in China, probably during the 300's B.C. Taoism is also the name of a religion that began in about the 100's B.C. Through the centuries, the philosophy has influenced artists and writers in the East and West. The word tao (also spelled dao) originally meant road or way. The Tao (Way) represents the characteristics or behaviour that makes each thing in the universe what it is. The word is also used to mean reality as a whole, which consists of all the individual “ways."

Taoism as a philosophy. The beliefs of Taoism as a philosophy appear in two books, the Laozi (later renamed the Tao Te Ching, The Classic of the Way and the Virtue) and the Chuang-tzu. The Laozi, also spelled Laotzu, is a collection from several sources and its authors and editors are unknown. The ideas were partly a reaction against Confucianism, a philosophy that developed in China beginning in about 500 B.C

According to Confucianism, people can live a good life only in a well-disciplined society that stresses atten­tion to ceremony, duty, morality, and public service. The Taoism ideal, on the other hand, is a person who avoids conventional social obligations and leads a simple, spontaneous, and meditative life close to nature.

Taoist philosophy had a great influence on Chinese literature and art. For example, the poetry of Tao Qian (Tao Ch'ien) (A.D. 365?-472?) expresses a distaste for worldly affairs and a yearning for a life in harmony with nature. During the early 1200's, Xia Gui (Hsia Kuei) painted landscapes that reflect the Taoist sensitivity to nature.

Taoism as a religion was influenced by Chinese folk religion. In folk religion, most of the gods are human beings who displayed exceptional powers during their lifetimes. For example, Guan Di, who is the protector of business people, lived as a general during the A.D. 200's.

Taoism has a hereditary priesthood. The priests con­duct public rituals, during which they submit the peo­ple's prayers to the gods of folk religion. The chief priest, who is in a trance, prays to other divinities on be­half of the worshippers. These divinities are not former human beings but represent aspects of the Tao.

The members of some Taoist groups have sought to attain immortality through magic, meditation, special diets, breath control, or the recitation of scriptures. The Taoist search for knowledge of nature has led many be­lievers to pursue various sciences, such as alchemy, as­tronomy, and medicine. See also Confucianism; Laozi; Religion (Taoism; pic­ture: Taoist deities); Zhuangzi.